Originally Posted by
lizatola 
He is very helpful around here but he needs to be told what to do. He doesn't 'see' what needs to be done, you know? I have to make a list every AM and tell him to clean the kitty litter, do the dishes, etc. But, he has a compliant personality and he will get it done.
A year or so ago, I started to get frustrated by my tween / teen step kids who would whine every time I asked them to do something in the house. We created a points system where they got points for helping out - during the school year, they each needed 50 points per week, which could be done and checked off at any point during the week. We negotiated points based on how distasteful a job was, but basically for an average job, one minute = one point.
If they got more than 50 points, extra points could be collected for treats - 50 points extra = $5. Which they actually seldom did!
I had to hound for over a year, but over time they self-selected the household jobs they preferred and now mostly do those without my prompting - or at least at my first request and without complaint or attitude.
I was very matter of fact about reminding them about the tasks in the beginning: when they would complain, I would just state, "We are a household of six, and your dad and I both work. We all need to work together to take care of our home."
The checklist worked particularly well for my stepson who is on the spectrum and has ADHD. He's the one who still needs prompting. I suspect that if I kept up on the checklist I would need to do less of that.
Might help if you could establish how much you expect him to help around the house and then create an easy way to monitor it.